hey problem i ran into is starting 2 days ago, i started hearing a loud alternator wine in my system. after checking things, all connections good ground good, i started monitoring my volts, i have 1 meter under the hood 1 on the cap and the headunit (pioneer) has one too. they use to read a constant 14.1 when running, and on a big bass hit dip to 13.8ish well now with the system turned down to min, and the car in idle im bouncing from 12.8 to 14.0. that means the alternator is on its way out hu...

 

I'd say the alty is going bad. Just to make sure take it to Autozone/Pepboyz/Discount/Advance and they will test it for free, then you will know for sure...

 

i was afraid of that. damn its an 02, well i have a nissan 100k extended warranty, they beter cover this.

 

Alternators are not usually covered under extended warranties- they are considered "normal wear" items IIRC...

 

had my buddy check the car, he says hes 100% sure its the alternator going down for the count. i checked the assurance plus warranty plan, covered under electrical the first item listed is the alternator. problem he said is they will probably see the audio system and go, oh were not covering the alternator because the audio system is not authorised nissan parts... is that true? and if they pull that any way i can get it covered??

 

Unfortunately they are right about that. The audio system does put additional strain on the alternator, so I guarantee they will call you out on it. Nissan dealers dont usually try to do many favors.

I would still try though. The worst they can say is no. Not sure if you can bring it to an Infiniti dealer, but my dealer in SD would always bend over backwards for me. Damn do I miss that.

 

Under law they cannot decl;ine your claim unless they Directly prove its the setups fault. In which case is somewhat difficult to do.

What exactly is installed in the car?

 

W/o knowing what the system consistes of, it's hard to tell what kind of additional strain it imposed on the cars stock electrical system, but the fact remains that cars' alternators are made to be able to feed the cars STOCK electrical load, and only have a small amount of reserve built in as far as extra charging ability.

The dealer is going to say that his aftermarket audio system over-taxed the alty and that is why it failed, and their reasoning is not that far off. If they see the system in the car, they are unlikley to warranty the alty...

Having said that, it really depends on the dealership as to how big of azzcrumbs they want to be.

 

Im well aware, hence the reason I asked what is installed. I do like to think that I know a little bit of how things work.

Although I will reiterate - It is Illegal to decline his claim without actual proof. To say "Its the stuff installed" falls quite short of whats needed to actually decline him.

 

I mainly said what I did so that HE knows how it all works, at least he won't be going in there w/ no idea and let them walk all over him.

And I neither said nor implied a lack of knowledge on your part of how things work. Noone doubts your skilz

 

Point taken.

Unfortunately I doubt my skilz on occassion.

 

Doesn't everyone? Doubt their own skilz I meen...

 

1 kicker zx700.5 running at 70x4rms and 420x1 rms but that shouldnt be any were nearly enough to do it. but heres the thing, ive been having problems with this since befor i installed the amp. then i installed it and ive been having all sorts of randum funny little problems, the car died on me a few times and had to be jumped, i think the alternator was already going and the system didnt help it. well im off to the dealer... geting ready to grab my ankles. but atleast i got a budy that said if they wont warranty it he will do the work for me. so ill just tell them if they arnt going to warranty it dont do the work.. he told me sometimes that will get them, because they would rather have some money than none, if they know you wont pay...

 

well they took the car messed with it for 2 hours, and concluded it was a loose bolt on my positive battery post. i have no clue how that was messing everything up but so far after driving it for 30 mins worked fine... im suspisious (spelt that one wrong) because even then why did it take 2 hours of labor to figur that out... i dunno whatever

 

Did they charge you for the labor?

 

2 hours at 89.95 an hour

 

Damn why did you bend over for that? Hell no....2 hours of work to only tighten a bolt....I call BS!

 

if you paid $180 to tighten a bolt...you deserve to pay.

 

That is funnny, sad yes, but very funny.

 

Next time if you want a bolt tigthened, pay me the $200 and I'll help you tighten your positive battery post.

 

just pay me $100 and I'll tell ya how to tighten it.

 

Hey don't try and steal my business.

 

i really doubt it tho, i took the battery off and on several times. plus ones they do the work and they have your car, what can you do? they got you by the *****.... so i ate this one, see if i go back to those guys ever again

 

You can tell them it's complete BS to charge you that much for tightening a battery terminal and you wont pay it! They know it is BS too.

Sorry you had to learn this hard of a lesson. I guess next time you may question the dealers crap.

 

eh the voltage is bouncing again..... guess there bolt "tightening" didnt do squat. its like its intermitten. i dunno ill have to either see if it gets worse or see if i cant trouble shoot it. this is all rather anoying. and it does it with the system unpluged (not hooked up at all) so i know its not the system. eh ill worry about it this weekend. if i find the problem im going back there and geting my money back.

 

if its not fixed...get a refund asap.

 

definatley, you payed them to fix your car, they took your money and now your car is still broken- they did not do what they were payed to do plain and simple...

 

I would not leave there without ALL of my $...and if I did leave, it would be to bring over pops to threaten to sue.

 

Definitely get your money back NOW!

If the alternator checked out... Maybe voltage regulator? Also check + and - batt. cables. Had a car where some of the insulation had worn off the pos. cable and was getting some very weird symptoms.

 

Ist easy to check the alternator by myself?

How to do that without taking it out of the car.

 

^^^What he said

 

Thanks for your reply.

I meant, if I could do the testing by myself.

The dealers and Autozone/Napa said: alternator is fine.

But, I have this unknown issue where my car suddenly stops while I am driving or waiting in the traffic. I left the car with dealer for a week and they gave up saying no issue with the car.

So, is there a way I can use a voltmeter/ammeter and check by myself, when next time it happens to me.

 

You can test the battery voltage with the car off, it should be around 12.6v. When you start the car, the battery voltage should go up to around 14.4v.

You should also be able to turn on all your FACTORY accessories and the voltage should still remain somewhere around 14v, but you may have to rev the engine a little to get the full 14.4v...

 

But the issue here is why is you car stopping? Are all the electrical items shutting down, causing the car to shut off? Or is the motor stalling due to a mechanical problem?

There is more to this issue than your alternator...

 

You had probably better move it, or else age is sure to ensue...

I guess you could just post in here a few more times, then move to whole thing to a new thread.

 

*** it, we can just use his thread for a few more posts, noone is up yet anyway...

Well, it sounds from your above description that there is nothing wrong with your charging system- if your car died but you were then able to crank it back up with the starter, then your charging system is charging well enough to keep the car running...

When you said

"I waited half an hour on the side of the road and the car started again. But, within 10 miles, the car again died while waiting in another traffic light. Interesting is that all the 4 lights could be turned on. But, the car would not start even after waiting for 30 min - when I tried to star it, all the dashboard lights would come on. Then I tried a jump start and the car ran fine and it is still running without any issue and I could not reproduce the failure again. "

, when you tried to restart the car this time, did the starter even click?

 

i feel used! first the dealer uses me then my thread being hijacked. im going to go cry now

 

I have a 2020 maxima with a 320 alt but my car stock charging stay at 13.6 rest and 14.7 running.how can i increase voltage with out bypassing the pcm. Module.

 

Who would you want to increase the voltage coming from the alt? Most vehicles made in the last 10 years have "smart" charging systems that know when to increase voltage output from the alternator and when it can decrease, they do it to reduce load and save fuel

 

I know but if I want to increase to 15 volts